Area of Expertise

There are two major threads of discussion and arguments in this paper. The first is that there is no panacea for the proper governance and management of diverse, multiscalar and complex Philippine coasts. The second point is that the creation of stable and effective governance and management institutions should be coupled with strategies to enhance organizational “learning”, as well as interdisciplinary approaches. Stable and overly cautious institutions for coastal area governance, coupled with a long checklist of management interventions, can be inflexible and ineffective to meet new challenges (e.g., policy failures, climate change, poverty, resource conflict). They can, however, be further optimized by enhancing their adaptive or learning capabilities. Stable and adaptive institutions are dependable in diverse contexts and situations, while continually negotiating and renegotiating goals and policies to enhance feasibility. Although steady-state institutions are easier to design and implement, they are mostly inefficacious during periods and places of rapid change or crisis.

Title of Book: Coastal Resources Management: Perspectives from the Social Sciences
Book Editors: Siason I.M.